Old rivals Walker, Norris to meet again at NCAA baseball regional (Herndon)

Former Fairhope star Daryl Norris, scoring a run here against LSU in the SEC tournament, will lead Mississippi State against Samford in the NCAA's Tallahassee regional on Friday. (Associated Press)

Gil Walker remembers Daryl Norris well.

When Walker was a senior at Spanish Fort in 2008, Norris was a sophomore a few miles down the road at Fairhope. Walker had helped his father, Toros coach Tommy Walker, build the Spanish Fort program into a 5A state contender and Norris anchored a Fairhope squad that was of the top 6A teams in southwest Alabama.

Throughout that season and the previous year, Walker, Norris and their teams squared off regularly on the diamond.

"We liked playing each other," Walker said this week, "because the games were always competitive."

They traded hits at the plate, like a 2007 game where Walker was 2-for-6 with four RBIs and Norris went 3-for-6 in an 11-9 11-inning Spanish Fort win. They also squared off as pitchers, like a 2-1 Fairhope win in 2008 when Norris threw a complete-game, three-hitter with 10 strikeouts, while Walker took the loss despite allowing only five hits in also going the distance.

"I just had to nibble a little bit," Walker recalled of his strategy in pitching to Norris. "If you threw it over the plate, he was going to hit it a long way."

On Friday the former adversaries will see each other again, as Norris' Mississippi State squad takes on Walker's Samford Bulldogs in the first round of the Tallahassee regional.

It's a matchup of the SEC champs against the Southern Conference champions -- a Samford team Mississippi State coach John Cohen said this week "might be the best college baseball team in the state of Alabama."

It's a matchup of a pitching staff led by the SEC pitcher of the year -- MSU's Chris Stratton - and a Samford team that's hit 62 home runs -- including 10 by former Leroy standout Phillip Ervin.

And it could be a matchup that forces two old rivals to face each other again.

Norris, a sophomore third baseman, is hitting .279 at Mississippi State, good for second on the team, and is third on the squad with 25 RBIs.

Walker, a senior relief pitcher, is 1-2 with a 3.80 ERA in 13 appearances for Samford, which is making its first-ever appearance in an NCAA regional.

Walker knows a bit about making history. He helped lay the foundation for a Spanish Fort program that has now won the last three 5A state titles, ending his career as first-team selection on a 2008 Press-Register all-region team that also included Norris, Auburn outfielder Cullen Wacker, Alabama outfielder Andrew Miller, Auburn quarterback Clint Moseley and Washington Nationals minor leaguer Destin Hood.

To create some new firsts in the city where he was born, at the college where his father spent nine seasons as head coach before going to Spanish Fort, is something special.

"He had to miss a doubleheader to watch me being born," Walker said of his dad, who was coaching Samford at the time. "I grew up here. It's been cool to see things come full circle."

And if the déjà vu includes another matchup with an old rival from Baldwin County, so much the better.

Contact Mike Herndon at mherndon@press-register.com. His column appears on Wednesdays and Sundays in the Press-Register. Follow him on Twitter at MikeHerndon_PR.